Friday, September 14, 2012

More, Please

A good friend of mine tweeted about the "Feed a chicken, milk a goat" weekend planned by the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture. Open Farm Day is set to involve about 60 farms and as many people as they can get to come out and visit.

"Open Farm Day is a backstage pass for consumers to
see, first-hand, the hard work, skill and dedication of our farmers,"
said Beth Densmore, president of the Nova Scotia Federation of
Agriculture, in a news release. "It helps reconnect people to where
their food is coming from."

In Nova Scotia, there are about 3,900 farms
employing about 5,200 people. In 2011, the industry generated $539.7
million in farm cash receipts and $229 million in international exports. The dairy sector was the primary revenue generator--which makes sense, because farmers produce under the Milk Marketing Board. It means we pay more for milk than people do in the US, but it also means that our farmers are paid something a lot closer to the actual cost of production. But things like farm visits are important. People, in my experience from doing fresh markets, want to connect with their food, their farmers, and the land.

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Hitch-hiked across Canada in the mid-seventies, changing, in the process, from an Albertan into a Canadian. Entered post-secondary studies at Grant McEwan College in Edmonton, moving over to the U of Alberta a year later to read English Lit. Friends invited me out for a visit to Victoria, and a week later I had a job, place to live, and was enrolled at UVic. Married two years later, we had twins (a boy, a girl, and a vasectomy), moved back to Alberta where we ran an over-educated New Agriculture farm for fourteen years. After the kids moved out, moved back to Victoria where we discovered sea kayaking. Live quietly, trying to pursue a life of voluntary simplicity, although we occasionally fail to live up to our own ideals. Still married, 28 years later, to the same person--and quite happy about it. Currently working on a book about Canadian food security issues.